Grammy Ratings Hit Record Low
by EG
The Grammys waded into an award season that is colored by the current social controversy over sexual assault, but cultural upheaval didn't draw as many viewers as the much-hyped Golden Globe Awards a few weeks ago. Maybe it was because the Grammys were long and relatively unexciting, or maybe it was because the sexual abuse scandals aren't hitting the music world as hard as they're hitting Hollywood. In any case, The Grammys posted its lowest ratings ever among young viewers.
Sunday's Bruno Mars-loving Grammy Awards took a dramatic ratings spill, fetching the smallest demo audience in the show's history.
The telecast, which ran a bloated three-and-a-half hours, was off by 24 percent from 2017 with adjusted numbers. With time zone adjustments taken into account, the telecast averaged 19.8 million viewers and a 5.9 rating among adults 18-49. The second stat marked a low for the show. Among total viewers, that number was down even more than overnight returns from Nielsen Media that it a 12.7 rating among households. It's the biggest drop for the Grammys since the 2013, the year after the show swelled following the death of Whitney Houston.
The 2017 overnight ratings for the Grammy Awards didn't paint the most accurate portrait of their year-over-year performance. The 16.0 rating among households, steady with 2016, ended up translating to a not-insignificant gain of 1 million viewers. Those Grammys were the best in two years, averaging just north of 26 million viewers and earning a 7.8 rating among adults 18-49.
CBS shifted the Grammys back to Sundays in 2017, a move that ultimately proved fruitful for the show. But, unlike the last few years, the 2018 Grammys happened rather early on the calendar — by a full two weeks. The Grammys last aired in January back in 2014.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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